Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 1m

Forum posts are documentation-shaped at best, as are all "only available via search indexes" approaches.

Documentation is explicitly not explanation, but one often needs both.

(If I could somehow disperse the diataxis.fr approach like dandelion seeds…)

Diátaxis

Diátaxis is a widely-adopted, pragmatic and systematic approach to thinking about and creating documentation.

diataxis.fr

Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 7m

Marveling at what passes for the "information architecture" of what passes for the "documentation" of Canvas / Instructure & having to remind myself every 5 minutes that just because something is incredibly user-hostile, that doesn't necessarily mean it's intentionally so.

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 25m

The above message brought to you by the impulse frequently known as "Why do something using a calculator in 30 excruciatingly boring minutes when one can spend 3 engaging hours figuring out how to automate it (ie with Obsid!an and Dataview)?"

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 30m

100% Organic, Artisanal, Generative "AI"-free Innovations in Procrastivity

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Zeb Palmer @zebpalmer.com · 21h

This looks like a great community opportunity #Boise

Resistance through community. Friday 24th at the Linen building.

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Joanne Freeman @jbf1755.bsky.social · 21h

1. Using humor & mockery to punch holes in fear-based authoritarian power grabs is a tried & true method

2. 1 point of such display is inspiring folks to see they're not alone in anger at this regime; that most folks agree w/them; & to fuel action

3. It's not aimed at DJT

It's building a movement

burlygiant.bsky.social @burlygiant.bsky.social · 1d

If only the Germans had dressed in animal costumes in the 1920's and 30's, Hitler would have been stopped in his tracks. I'm all for humour and satire but it's going to take more than some funny costumes.

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Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò @olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 21h

you have to hunt a bit for the results (though delivered through a nice infographic) so a partial list of the brands that tested low: Optimum Nutrition (whey, not the mass gainer) Owyn, Transparent Labs

paris martineau @paris.nyc · 23h

my latest investigation for @consumerreports.org is based on months of reporting and 60+ lab tests of leading protein supplements

we found that most protein powders and shakes have more lead in one serving than our experts say is safe to have in a day (🧵)

www.consumerreports.org/lead/protein...

Protein Powders and Shakes Contain High Levels of Lead - Consumer Reports

CR tests of 23 popular protein powders and shakes found that most contain high levels of lead.

www.consumerreports.org

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Knowledge Commons @kcommons.bsky.social · 1d

Mark your calendars! 📅 KCWorks is hosting a special Open Access Week webinar — Open for All: The Future of Open Knowledge.
Join us Friday, Oct 24 to explore how institutions are building sustainable, community-driven repositories. 🌱
Register now! 👉 msu.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

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Steven W. Thrasher is finishing The Overseer Class @thrasherxy.bsky.social · 1d

What an offensive statement from so-called historians. There have been others who have been chased out of the country. Mohamed Abdou was deported for his teaching about Gaza…and he was a prof AT COLUMBIA! But he was queer, Muslim, brown & untenured. Do only white straight tenured profs get sympathy?

Karl Jacoby @karl-jacoby.bsky.social · 1d

History faculty at Columbia & Barnard decrying the harassment of @mark-bray.bsky.social: "This is the first case in recent memory of a historian who has fled the country after receiving death threats on account of the history that they teach."

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 1d

In an adjacent timeline, researchers could get funding to do longitudinal studies on, for instance, what % of these anodyne accounts with forgettable handles and profile photos of conventionally attractive fit young people suddenly turn into drastically other personae during narrative crises.

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 1d

It's so weird! All I've been doing for the last few weeks is asking my large languaging tamagotchi about literal honeypots, and now all the advertisements I see across the Internet have to do with jars & pots & sticks of honey.

Can't be a coincidence. A honeypot sign from an apian intelligence?

Jathan Sadowski @jathansadowski.com · 13d

What an unsurprising decision by corporations that desperately need to make money with AI. If every other company with a chatbot isn't already doing this, then expect them to be following Meta's lead soon. The chatbot is not your friend; it's a corporate listening device. www.ft.com/content/22f7...

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email licensing@ft.com to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found at https://www.ft.com/tour.
https://www.ft.com/content/22f7afc3-8ac0-4ca1-9877-fd3f8ddcc986?desktop=true&segmentId=7c8f09b9-9b61-4fbb-9430-9208a9e233c8#myft:notification:daily-email:content

Meta will use conversations people have with its chatbots to personalise advertising and content across its platforms, in a sign of how tech companies plan to make money from artificial intelligence.

The owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp on Wednesday said it would use the content of chats with its Meta AI to create advertising recommendations across its suite of apps.

“People will already expect that their Meta AI interactions are being used for these personalisation purposes,” said Christy Harris, privacy and data policy manager at Meta.

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Reed C. Hepler @bringthehuman.bsky.social · 1d

Computers make decisions, or commit actions that are yes/no.

Humans make choices, or commit actions that are yes/no/or/and.

Do not let a computer, of any kind, turn your choices into decisions.

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Kathy Harris @triproftri.bsky.social · 1d

CFP (due 10/15 initial interest) from Journal of Open Humanities Data with Jenny Kwok co-editing this special edition, Benchmarking in #DigitalHumanities

openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com/collections/...

Benchmarking in Digital Humanities | Journal of Open Humanities Data

openhumanitiesdata.metajnl.com

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 1d

There's also the open question of whether text-based platforms like this (even w/o algorithms) encourage brevity in writing & reading & conviviality (due to form, background reply guy radiation, etc.)—and therefore encourage talking past one another, defensiveness, lack of clarifying questions, etc.

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 1d

Awkwardness of observing authentic, artisanal, small-batch beef start to develop on here between people I respect—and seeing how it's largely due to how it's so easy to speak past one another when talking about still-emergent phenomena like "'generative' 'AI'", "content generation", & "new media".

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 1d

The way my fingers immediately did the walking & started dialing the numbers for Selena & Kaia, who I called most often in high school.

High school, which I graduated from in 1996.

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 1d

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
2? Questions
I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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s. eek smith 👻 @sesmith.lol · 2d

This special education news is really devastating and we're going to learn more in the coming days as we get more info and people figure out exactly what it means, but a reminder that disabled people are entitled to a free appropriate public education.

Amid shutdown, Trump administration guts department overseeing special education

Multiple sources tell NPR that, as part of the Trump administration's latest reduction-in-force, the U.S. Department of Education has gutted the office that handles special education.

www.npr.org

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Kevin Gannon (now a Moo Deng fan account) @thetattooedprof.bsky.social · 2d

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Kate Crowe @kcrowe.bsky.social · 2d

Not just elections. I still think back on doing traffic safety for a small march in a northern suburb of Denver and having the cops literally redirecting traffic back at us. When one of us went to ask them to stop actively endangering ppl, the cop said "can't, we've been defunded."

Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 2d

the actual story here, which the media never talks about, is that police in this country have become a discrete right-wing political operation. the story isn't about cops leaving (they're lying about that), it's about the police trying to exert influence over elections.

Mark Misoshnik 🏴 @misoshnik.bsky.social · 3d

Lmao is this supposed to be a bad thing?

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Andy Bell @bell.bz · 2d

“I asked chat GPT”

🏰meg⚔️ @Birthright Audiobook! @impavid.us · 5d

In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 2d

In a better world, prosecutors would be charging masked ICE agents randomly for the crimes that have been well documented.

Oh, you claim that masked agent abducting a child & holding them hostage as bait for their parent "isn't you"?

Prove it—produce a video with your face uncovered at the time.

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 2d

Seeing people talk about career trajectories always reinforces my impression that I have had, at best, a careen.

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Ryan "Spirit Halloween of '76" Randall @ryanpatrickrandall.com · 2d

Chatting about e-readers with my mom, I learned that she also prefers dark mode wherever possible.

Yet more proof that she's a woman of taste & erudition. (Like, in addition to having spawned me, y'know.)

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jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 2d

the bad timeline: we spend the rest of our lives trapped in the 2016-era “LOCK HIM UP” / “LOCK HER UP” national political discourse because punishment is all our depraved country knows

prince egregious, heir apparent @sonofahurricane.bsky.social · 2d

Our carceral impulses seem to supersede any care for victims, and that’s a part of how we got here in the first place.

jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 2d

I won't use any organizing energy opposing the criminalization of feds, but I really think people should be focusing on restorative initiatives for victims / communities first. We already saw the results of Jan 6 prosecutions---they're already back on the streets.

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prince egregious, heir apparent @sonofahurricane.bsky.social · 2d

Our carceral impulses seem to supersede any care for victims, and that’s a part of how we got here in the first place.

jon ben-menachem @jbenmenachem.com · 2d

I won't use any organizing energy opposing the criminalization of feds, but I really think people should be focusing on restorative initiatives for victims / communities first. We already saw the results of Jan 6 prosecutions---they're already back on the streets.

Robert Cruickshank @robertcruickshank.com · 2d

While I think ICE agents should face criminal charges for their kidnapping of immigrants, they should face long, and perhaps lifetime, prison sentences for anything like this involving kids. An ICE agent willing to do this is not someone who should be out among society even after Dems retake power.

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